TARDIGRADES

(Water bears!!

Also called tardigrades or moss piglets.

They're polyextremophiles, meaning they can survive in multiple different kinds of extreme environments. They can survive in space, high amounts of radiation, extreme low and high temperatures, and most commonly live in moss.

Some tardigrades are 100 years old!!!!!!!! Because they can dry themselves out (it's called cryptobiosis) in a little shell and then rehydrate. Some of their super survival abilities are because they do horizontal gene transfer, where they acquire the DNA of other creatures. (You can read more about that here.)

There are multiple species of tardigrades!

They're cute, and bisexual!

They live in moss, which is my favorite thing ever. Please experience walking barefoot in moss if you haven't yet! :)